5 Things You Didn't Know: Escorts

At the top of the pyramid, there is a very small group of elite escorts who generally work out of major cities and service the multimillionaires, celebrities and pro athletes. These escorts have the ability to pull in fees that would make the finest corporate lawyers in the world green with envy. In 2007, New York magazine stated that one particularly well-regarded New York-based escort was making in excess of $2,000 per hour during her heyday. There are reports of some select escorts making even more than that.

4- Different countries offer different services

The legality and status of escort services vary according to which country you're in. In Canada, prostitution itself is legal, but street prostitution is discouraged due to the illegality of services surrounding it, such as pimping and negotiating a sex-for-money deal in a public place. That's where escort services come in. To maintain a veneer of legality, agencies perform a middleman service; they arrange a meeting between the escort and the client without explicitly stating what will transpire.

Many other countries have similar regimes, but some countries have prostitution laws that are particularly arcane and nonsensical. For example, it is legal to pay for fellatio, but not for vaginal intercourse in Japan. Most Western European countries have more relaxed prostitution laws — in fact, in some of these countries prostitution is a positively respectable, mainstream occupation. In anything-goes Amsterdam, escorts are now tax-paying, unionized professionals.

5- Escorts have a secret lingo

In order to skirt prostitution and pimping bans, escort agencies are careful not to explicitly advertise that its escorts are exchanging sexual favors for money. As such, agencies and clients have developed a lexicon of coded internet slang and abbreviations that allow for the communication of what services will be exchanged. This practice was developed for use in areas (mostly in the U.S.) where prostitution laws are strictly enforced and the lingo has a strong presence on most English-speaking escort sites.

Examples of escort codes include BBBJ, which indicates that a client will receive oral sex without a condom, while a CBJ indicates oral sex with a condom. A "girlfriend experience" or GFE implies an experience that is more affectionate than the typical "mechanical" sexual encounter. The GFE features a "warm" escort who will engage in such activities as open-mouthed kissing and cuddling — you know, girlfriend stuff.

A myraid of governments have tried to eradicate prostitution by making it illegal and imposing harsh penalties; however, like similar attempts with other vices, such as gambling and drugs, such efforts have consistently failed due to continuous demand. Many men have trouble initiating a relationship, have little time for a relationship or simply enjoy the sexual variety, and escorts have provided an outlet for such desires with a safer, cleaner and more attractive reputation than street prostitutes.

Men will always be interested in sex and certain men will always be interested in paying for it. The rise of the internet has caused a huge boon to the escort industry. Aside from the obvious safety and cleanliness issues, internet sites provide johns with a greater choice, an opportunity to preview particular escorts and a modicum of confidentiality. As such, the number of working escorts, as opposed to street or brothel prostitutes, has increased significantly in the past decade.